Cannot print wirelessly USB h/p Officejet 5610 connected to Airport Express

Question

my iBook G4 is upgraded to Tiger v10.4.11. Can do successful printing tethered to USB printer. Want to print wirelessly. AirPort is active, indicator light is solid green. USB printer is plugged into AirPort Express. I clicked file, then print, then selected Bonjour printers-my printer. The iBk tried to add printer but I got the following message: "An error occurred while trying to add the selected printer".
Can anyone out there help me? Many thanks. gold75

Answer 1

Were you able to previously use that same printer via AirPort Express,
& print wirelessly, with the USB wire plugged into the AirPort base unit?
Since I have the exact all-in-one HP printer/scanner/copier/fax model
by number, and have the downloaded HP drivers (a large file) to be
up-to-date, the HP device has never worked via USB plugged into AE.
Mine is the older AirPort Express 802.11b/g. All of my Macs see and
use the Epson printer attached to my AirPort Express; and like the OP
my HP won't do anything at all and is never seen connected via USB
to the base station. So I figured it was not supported. After looking for
about a year, I found little evidence it was capable of working via wi-fi
through the USB cabling to the base station; unlike some others.
I do have an Epson 820 Photo Stylus that always works well with the
same base station via USB cable; except for the ink status utility and
cleaning head utility, these only work when attached by USB cable.
The Epson also worked well with the last model orb-shaped AirPort
Extreme base station to print via the USB port; that is a superior base
unit with more capabilities, it's the printer & drivers with limitations.
If you do get the HP 5610xi or similar all-in-one to work, note back
here what drivers and/or configuration you used to accomplish that.
An older list, unofficial, of compatible printers that had been used under
some circumstances (airport firmware updates can change this) were
noted in this web page: http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/1013.html
A second page there suggests trying gimp or other drivers; the issue
in part may also be the airport firmware update in use. Printers not on
the compatibility list: http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/1300.html
Mac OS: All-in-one & PhotoSmart Printers compatible with AirPort
base stations; HP (read for details, may not apply) - long link follows:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00035369&produc t=303753&dlc=en&lang=en
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited to add links }